On the fourth day of their internship, Brittany Ebbing, Oregon McDiarmid, and Brittany Woods went to the Tower Building, which is another office that the USPHS is based out of in Rockville, Maryland. The first stop of the morning was the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP). LT McBryde, a Public Health Advisor, educated the interns on Healthy People 2020. This program serves as a structure with measurable objectives on 42 health topics for a healthier population. Each of the different health topics has a measurable goal that will be checked in 2020 to see if the nations health has improved.
Ms. Deborah Hoyer, a Communication Strategy Fellow in the ODPHP, told the interns about the Leading Health Indicators, which are the twelve most important health issues of the 42 health topics within the original Healthy People 2020 Report. Another fellow in the ODPHP, Katrina, educated the interns on the new dietary guidelines that came out from the USDA, including MyPlate, the new visual guide for the dietary guidelines. She also talked about the physical education guidelines that were developed in 2008.
Ms. Linda Harris, the Acting Deputy Director of ODPHP and the Lead of the Health Communication and eHealth Division, educated the interns about the different websites that the ODPHP operates, including healthfinder.gov and healthypeople.gov. She also talked about health literacy and how the ODPHP makes sure that the information coming out about health is easy to understand for everyone. Next, Dr. Debra Nichols, Public Health Advisor, talked to the interns about the different agencies within the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), including the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and educated them on the review process for each agency.
Next, the interns went to the Office of Commissioned Corps Recruitment and Office of Commissioned Corps Operations. LT Kunard, a Recruitment Specialist, led the interns around the office and explained what day-to-day operations took place in the office. During their tour the interns were introduced to many USPHS officers that each shared their story of how they got involved in the Commissioned Corps (CC). The first was CAPT Aponte, who is a trained Social Worker and has been in the CC for over 20 years, she currently works as a Social Work Administrator in the office. Next, the interns met CAPT Prince who is the Director of Commissioned Corps Assignments; she started her career as a nurse and has also received her MBA. Finally, they were introduced to CAPT Stevens, the Acting Director of the Office of Commissioned Corps Operations (OCCO), he is an engineer by training and told the interns about the time he spent at the CDC doing research and how he got to the position he is in today. Each of the stories that the interns heard were unique and exemplified the service minded nature of the Commissioned Corps officers.
After an exciting and informational morning at the Tower Building, the interns returned to their hotel to work on their projects for the remainder of the afternoon. They worked on finalizing their presentations for the following day. The interns are surprised at how quickly the week has gone, but they are excited to see what their final day has in store for them.
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